RS

EDITOR OF REDSTATE

A few additional and hopefully final thoughts on Sarah Palin

Perhaps I should keep my mouth shut now, because I’m causing a few people to run for the hills for daring to voice my opinion that Sarah Palin is done with elected politics, though not necessarily politics altogether.Nonetheless, here are more thoughts.1. Sarah Palin resigned, I think, to spare her family from more attacks. I don’t think it is a coincidence that Sarah Palin is doing this just days after a very nasty Vanity Fair article where folks like Nicolle Wallace and, according to Bill Kristol, McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt (though I’m told Schmidt is not involved), savaged her.2. Unfortunately, by resigning, I think the left and national media will be emboldened to ritualistically engage in the metaphorical gang raping of conservative politicians, particularly those who are female and have children. They’ll decide savaging Palin’s family drove her from office, so the sky’s the limit on the next conservative with kids.3. I’m sad that so many people are mad at me for voicing my opinion that she’s done with elected politics. I have always supported Sarah Palin. I continue to support her. But that does not change what I think. We should not be invested in the politician or the personality, but the ideas.4. I’ve had this running thought all day, perhaps because I was watching it on TV in HD for the first time, that this is kind of like Ben Kenobi letting Darth Vader strike him down. Palin is not going to run in 2012, but by doing this she can now become Barack Obama’s worst nightmare, and help rebuild the opposition to Obama. How? Because were she to remain a 2012 contender, she’d keep having stories by anonymous McCain campaign staffers and other 2012 contenders going after her and her family. Take that ambition off the table and it neutralizes a lot of that. So she can focus on candidates and ideas without an ulterior motive focused on 2012.5. My friends on the right who are heaping the most scorn on Palin and saying things like “this proves she shouldn’t have been elected in the first place,” “if she can’t take the heat she should have never gotten in the kithchen,” etc. are also typically the ones who do not have small children.6. Yes, yes. Jokes were made about Chelsea Clinton. How many allegedly credible media organizations pursued stories that she was not Hillary Clinton’s child? How many late night comics joked about her getting raped at a Yankee’s game? How many allegedly mainstream comics and pundits made mental retardation jokes about her? See e.g. the Huffington Post, which put up then took down a post by Erik Sean Nelson entitled “Palin Will Run In ’12 On More Retardation Platform.”7. People are so cynical. Immediately, several people I know concluded there must be a scandal. After all, that’s why politicians abruptly do stuff like this. How about her being tired of her family being smeared constantly and forced to pay huge legal bills to fight frivolous complaints? Maybe it is a scandal, but it’s sad that so many people default to that.And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.